Stardate 46531.2: Upon returning from the Gamma Quadrant, the Ganges, with Dax and a subordinate on board, suffers total power failure. The Runabout makes it to one of the docking ports, and Commander Sisko and Major Kira try to open it to no avail. Before Chief O'Brien supplies an external power coupling to the Runabout, Dr. Bashir's tricorder identifies an extra passenger aboard the Ganges. Once the door is open, the crew finds that the passenger is Vash, the close friend of Enterprise Captain Jean-Luc Picard, who had not been seen since she went on a tour of the Universe with Q.

Recap

Log Entries:
* Stardate 46531.2 - The station's power is continuing to be drained and converted into gravitons. At this rate, our life support systems will fail in fourteen hours.
* Stardate 46532.3 - With the embryonic life-form off the station, graviton levels have returned to normal. We've used the control thrusters to return the station to its original position.

This episode marks the only appearance of Q on the series.

Episode Quotes

(after Q rids the station of all its inhabitants)Benjamin:(grabs Q's collar) Bring them back, Q. Now!Q: Or what? You'll thrash me? Shall we settle this mano a mano?(The station's people reappear, and their cheering on a boxing match between Sisko and Q)Q: "Marcus" of Queensbery Rules.Benjamin: What?Q: Fisticuffs, pugilism, the manly art of self-defense.(punches Sisko)
Come on. Isn't this all wonderfully barbaric? Go on, take a poke at me. I know that's what you really want to do. Come on.Quark: I'll wager five bars of latinum...on Sisko.Vash: You're on.Q: Fight back. This is supposed to be brutal.(punches Sisko three times in the face before Sisko stops his fourth punch and sends Q reeling to the floor with a punch to the stomach and one to the face)Quark:(to Vash) You can pay me out of your profits from the auction.Q:(still smarting from the punch) You hit me. Picard never hit me.Benjamin: I'm not Picard.Q: Indeed not. You're much easier to provoke. How fortunate for me.

Odo:(to Quark) I'll never understand this obsession with accumulating material wealth. You spend your entire life plotting and scheming to acquire more and more possessions until your living areas are bursting with useless junk. Then you die. Your relatives sell everything and start the cycle all over again.

Episode Goofs

When Dr. Bashir asks Vash out to dinner, Q appears behind him. When Q disappears, the camera angle has shifted slightly to the right. Then, when Dr. Bashir leaves, Vash puts her head down. At the same moment, Q reappears and her face is now looking up towards Q when there had been no time for her to move her head.

When Quark and Vash are talking about the price of the quartz stone, Commander Sisko comes up and says, "We need to talk." Quark then says, "The lady and I are having a private conversation." After Sisko says, "It can wait," and without knowing who the 'we' is that Sisko is referring to, Quark stands up and leaves.